A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 14 September 2021 - T for doors and windows

 Hello lovely ladies, Here we are again on Tuesday. It's been a manic weekend. More of that later. Let me start by showing you my postcards:

Two lovely doors. No mention of where they are from, although the postcard comes to me from Germany. A young lady called Johanna who lives in Kiel, in the north of Germany.

The large stamp shows the lighthouse of Campen. Here is a better image:

It stands near the border with the Netherlands.

The Campen lighthouse standing at 65 metres high is Germany’s largest lighthouse. Its interesting structure takes the form of a lattice tower. Not only does it resemble the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was also constructed in the same year. It is also commonly known as ‘The Eiffel Tower’s little brother’ or ‘The Eiffel Tower of the North Sea’.

The lighthouse was built in 1889 and stands northwest of Emden at the mouth of the Ems river in the North Sea. The tower is not just the biggest lighthouse in Germany, it is also the most powerful German light beacon with a range of approx. 55 kilometres.

A fantastic view awaits those who climb the 332 steps to the top. It’s worth it: on a clear day there is a wonderful view over the flat Krummhörn countryside and the Ems river. You can even see as far as the Netherlands and the North Sea island of Borkum.

Here are some more doors. Again a postcard that comes from Germany. Sent to me by a young man who works as a paramedic and in his free time he plays drums and guitar in a rock band.

He tells me the doors are typical of the region west of Hamburg.

The stamps are fun and the large one features Die Maus, a German television programme for children that is watched by adults too. (Iris watches it I believe) The stamp commemorates 50 years of Die Maus.

Wikipedia says this: 

Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Show with the Mouse) is a children's series on German television that has been called "the school of the nation". The show first aired on 7 March 1971. Originally called Lach- und Sachgeschichten für Fernsehanfänger ("Laughing and Learning Stories for Television Beginners"), it was controversial because German law prohibited television for children under six years of age. 

The program was initially condemned by teachers and childcare professionals as bad for children's development, but is now hailed for its ability to convey information to children. The show has received over 75 awards. The first doctoral dissertation on the program was written in 1991. On 7 March 1999 the program's Internet site was launched and received 2,400 e-mails and 4 million hits on the first day.

My last postcard is a window. A very old and dirty one:

It is a still life really and comes to me from Guernsey.  The photograph is titled (Unsurprisingly) Still Life and it is a photo by Steve Lovi.

The stamp is beautiful. It features a European eel (Anguilla anguilla).

Wikipedia says this:

The European eel is a species of eel, a snake-like, catadromous fish. They are normally around 60–80 cm and rarely reach more than 1 m, but can reach a length of up to 1.5 m in exceptional cases. Eels have been important sources of food both as adults and as glass eels.

The European eel is a critically endangered species.^[1] Since the 1970s, the numbers of eels reaching Europe is thought to have declined by around 90% (possibly even 98%). Contributing factors include overfishing, parasites such as Anguillicola crassus, barriers to migration such as hydroelectric dams.

While the species' lifespan in the wild has not been determined, captive specimens have lived over 80 years. A specimen known as "the Brantevik Eel" lived for 155 years in the well of a family home in Brantevik, a fishing village in southern Sweden.

Much of the European eel's life history was a mystery for centuries, as fishermen never caught anything they could identify as a young eel. Unlike many other migrating fish, eels begin their life cycle in the ocean and spend most of their lives in fresh inland water, or brackish coastal water, returning to the ocean to spawn and then die. In the early 1900s, Danish researcher Johannes Schmidt identified the Sargasso Sea as the most likely spawning grounds for European eels.^[20] The larvae (leptocephali) drift towards Europe in a 300-day migration.^[21]

When approaching the European coast, the larvae metamorphose into a transparent larval stage called "glass eel", enter estuaries, and many start migrating upstream. After entering their continental habitat, the glass eels metamorphose into elvers, miniature versions of the adult eels. As the eel grows, it becomes known as a "yellow eel" due to the brownish-yellow color of their sides and belly. After 5–20 years in fresh or brackish water, the eels become sexually mature, their eyes grow larger, their flanks become silver, and their bellies white in color. In this stage, the eels are known as "silver eels", and they begin their migration back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. Silvering is important in an eel's development because it allows for increased levels of the steroid hormone cortisol, which is needed for their migration from fresh water back to the sea.^[22] Cortisol plays a role in the long migration because it allows for the mobilization of energy during migration.^[23] Also playing a key role in silvering is the production of the steroid 11-Ketotestosterone (11-KT), which prepares the eel for structural changes to the skin to endure the migration from fresh water to saltwater.

Isn't that interesting!

Enough of that.

Remember I told you we had chickens? well, they have started to lay eggs. We spotted this bossy alpha chicken in the nest box. Hurray!

We have had four eggs so far. The last egg was very big: 60 g.

When I cooked it, this is what i got:

Double yolks!

And that reminds me of the lovely ladies of the T-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. My contribution is a glass of white wine. I had cooked a creamy pasta dish with spinach and had baked some salmon in the oven. It was very delicious.

If you think you can spot a walkie-talkie, you are right. My hubby carries one, as our house is very big  (4 floors). It also works outside when he goes to the 'campo'. I can call him if necessary. 

I'm writing this on Monday and I am so tired that I'm not really going to add much more. On Saturday our municipality organized a coach trip for the citizens to Granada's Alhambra. We had been once but that was in winter. I wanted to see the views and the gardens too. It was a wonderful but very tiring day. Then on Sunday I had to get up early to catch a coach to go for a mountain hike with the walking group. All the groups of the province come together for a 13 km hike. We take turns in hosting. Next month it is our turn (our village). 

I have lovely photos of both events, but they will have to wait until Friday and next Tuesday. 

Now I wish all you ladies a very happy T-Day!

Keep smiling,

Hugs,

Lisca